The Milstein Program is for students who want to combine their liberal arts education with advanced study of technology. It combines the benefits of a liberal arts education in the College of Arts & Sciences with two summers spent taking courses and completing projects at Cornell Tech in New York City. The program aims to have 25 students per class with two points of entry; the first upon admission, and the second at the end of the freshman year, for a total of 100 Milstein students on campus.
Chloe Kanders '22 talks about her experience as a second-year Milstein student:
"Two weeks ago, I returned to Ithaca to see both familiar and fresh faces on campus. I was so excited to reunite with my freshman year friends and create new friendships. As one of the original 14 students from the class of 2022 cohort, I was especially eager to meet the newly admitted students to the program, who will be joining me on Roosevelt Island during the summers of 2020 and 2021.
"I mingled with other students at the Welcome BBQ Aug. 28 and was introduced to some important faculty members. However, I did not really get a chance to delve deeper than surface level conversations with my peers in the program until later that week, when we all visited Hoffman Ropes Challenge Course and participated in team-building.
"Through various challenges and team building activities, I worked with other students to come up with solutions and overcome abstract tasks. For example, in one activity, our groups stood in a circle of rope and were told to imagine that we were on an igloo. The task was to retrieve an item approximately 50 feet away, while all the teammates were connected in some way and at least one member of the group remaining in the circle.
"These tasks encouraged us to use our communication and teambuilding skills in a positive environment, also allowing us to get to know each other better. We found that the most successful ideas were not the ideas of one person, but of the entire team."
